Archive for the ‘ Open Source’ Category

Really all the application logic runs on one server (sometimes the database lives on a separate server with some logic in Stored Procedures) and the browser is the “client”. But in those applications the “client” is really not a client in the client server sense. It’s the TERMINAL.

The more we federate logic in our web applications to the user’s machine (inside or outside of the browser) the more we take load responsibility away from our server infrastructure.

I think NODE.js is a great potential alternative for the server side piece of a real web based client / server scenario.

However, in searching the web you find lots of posts about how to install NODE.js that are pretty intimidating.

I found it very easy to set up on Ubuntu so I thought I’d share the steps in case anyone would find them useful.

You can do the install on Ubuntu 11.10 using the Synaptic Package Manager.

On the Ubuntu Unity tool bar, click on the “Dash home” icon at the top of the bar.

Start typing “Synaptic” to search for the package manager and when it appears, click to fire up the Synaptic Package Manager.

In the Synaptic Package Manager enter node.js into the package search box.

As you see above, select NODE.js (I also selected the developer and debug packages) and then click on the “Apply” button.

When you’re done the Package Manager Dialog should look something like the one above.

Then open up text editor (in the image below, I’m using Geany)

Enter just the seven lines of code shown above which will serve as a test to confirm that NODE.js is installed correctly.

The Orchard Project team is pleased to announce the availability of the Orchard 0.8 release, which provides essential features that designers need to tailor the look-and-feel of Orchard sites. The release can be downloaded from http://www.orchardproject.net/download

The Orchard 0.8 release includes a theme engine based on the new Razor syntax in ASP.NET MVC, which is an extensible object model for defining “shapes”, as well as a flexible template system for rendering those shapes. The theme engine includes support for multiple layouts and zones, a script and style sheet registration API, and more. It also includes a new default theme, “The Theme Machine”, which leverages these features and can be adapted to fit the needs of different site designs.

As if a Theme Machine isn’t cool enough, the 0.8 release also includes support for widgets – in this case, configurable UI elements, such as a tag cloud or search input, which can be easily mapped to different regions in the site (for example, a sidebar). The configuration of individual widgets and the rules about where they appear in the site are configurable from the Orchard admin panel.

For designers, this offers the flexibility to either brand individual sites or create reusable themes to be shared with others. Orchard 0.8 also includes support for packaging themes and publishing them to an online gallery feed where other users can discover and download them.

IronPython and IronRuby are two dynamic language implementations for the .NET Framework that Microsoft has incubated internally over the last few years .

Several versions of both language environments, and all of the source code, have been released under open source licenses.

Thursday, October 21, new components and project leaders were announced for IronPython and IronRuby, in an effort to increase the opportunity for community members to contribute their own code and actively participate in these projects to advance them even further.

New Components of IronPython and IronRuby

Changes have been made to the CodePlex projects for IronPython and IronRuby to make it easier for the community to be involved.

For both IronPython and IronRuby, we’ve made changes to the CodePlex projects to allow community members to make contributions without Microsoft’s involvement or sponsorship by a Microsoft employee.

We also have enabled a full release work flow to produce builds and releases straight from the CodePlex projects. (Previously, these only could easily be done from Microsoft’s own source depots. )

The community now can make source contributions to any component of IronPython and IronRuby.

In addition, we have fixed a lot of infrastructure so the community should be able to regression test all language updates using our tests.

All of them have worked with or on the Iron projects since their inception.

Additional Information

The CLR has always been a great environment for dynamic languages and over the last several years Microsoft has built out additional dynamic language support for the .NET Framework through efforts like the Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR) and language implementations on top of the DLR. The DLR shipped earlier this year as a built-in component of .NET Framework 4, and there are now have several great language implementations built on top of it.

The IronPython and IronRuby projects began as an effort to improve support for dynamic languages in the .NET Framework and to diversify Microsoft’s portfolio of programming languages.

These language projects have helped thousands of people since they began, and they have added value to the .NET Framework.

They helped create the Dynamic Language Runtime in the .NET Framework 4, on which we have also built C#s new ‘dynamic’ keyword and improved Visual Basic’s late-binding support.

Microsoft will continue to invest in making the .NET Framework a great runtime environment for dynamic languages going forward.

The CodePlex Foundation, a non-profit foundation formed with the mission of enabling the exchange of code and understanding among software companies and open source communities, launched today, September 10, 2009.

SplendidCRM Software, Inc., a provider of Microsoft-centric Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions for open-source use, announced the launch of Version 3.0 of SplendidCRM.

The release of Version 3.0 marks a milestone as it introduces the SplendidCRM Workflow Engine as a flagship feature in the new SplendidCRM Enterprise product.

“For many companies, workflow is a critical feature and we are pleased to be able to tightly integrate SplendidCRM with Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation,” said Paul Rony, President of SplendidCRM.

• Provides a single space to visually describe one or more application systems with structural and behavioral components.
• Provides a single space to visually describe one or more application systems with logical and physical components.
• Provides a single space to visually describe one or more application systems from top to low level.
• Provides a single space to visually describe a part or whole of one or more application systems.
• Extremely simple and easy understand and learn from readers and designers perspective.
• Concentrates on .NET applications, with its related logical and physical entities (user interface, application logic, business logic, database etc).

I’ve been doing PHP work for almost 10 years and I’ve worked at Microsoft for 7 of them.

When I talk about Open Source, it’s not form a “religions” perspective. I’m interested in the applications, the people and the business model.

A PHP friend, Wez Furlong, share a passion for making things that were necessarily designed to work together do exactly that. Wez is a pretty big figure in the PHP world and we did a panel together a few years ago at MIX in which Wez brilliantly described Open Source as “Itch Driven Development”.

The point is, it’s the community need that drive the success of an Open Source project, no matter what the underlying technology.

This one died.

Check out my next blog post for a not on a COOL project that is alive and well !

Silverlight, AJAX and PDF Invoices Cement SplendidCRM as the Ideal CRM Platform for Companies that have Standardized on the Microsoft Technology Stack

RALEIGH, N.C.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–SplendidCRM Software, Inc., a pioneering provider of Microsoft-centric Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions for open-source use, today announced the launch of Version 2.1 of its flagship platform SplendidCRM. The new Silverlight graphs provide SplendidCRM developers with unprecedented ability to create and customize graphs. Extended AJAX support provides the CRM user with a more natural experience.

“Integration of the latest Microsoft technologies into SplendidCRM continue to make it the ideal back-office platform,” said Paul Rony, President of SplendidCRM. “Our decision to standardize on the Microsoft Report Definition Language (RDL) allowed us to create an Invoice using Microsoft’s Report Designer and import it into SplendidCRM. The end result is the ability to generate PDF invoices at the click of a button.”

New Features

In addition to the technology enhancements, the SplendidCRM query system has been optimized to focus on retrieving active fields. This optimization dramatically increases the performance of SplendidCRM when managing tables with more than 100,000 records.

User Interface Enhancements

Credit Card management and processing using the popular .netCHARGE component (licensed separately) allows SplendidCRM to become your primary order-management system.

PayPal Instant Payment Notification is now supported, thereby ensuring that sales are automatically and instantly tracked by the CRM.

Incorporation of AJAX into sub panels enables the list to be sorted and paginated without the full page refresh.

Developer Enhancements

SplendidCRM continues to be the ideal platform for .NET back-office applications with the deep penetration of Microsoft technologies. When put together, these technologies help developers achieve Rapid Application Development (RAD).

PDF Generation of Invoices, Orders and Quotes is enabled via a combination of Dynamic Buttons, imported RDL reports and the Microsoft Report View.

Dynamic Buttons further extend the data-driven foundation of SplendidCRM. By dynamically rendering the buttons, you get to add field data to the buttons. This is important because it allows you to add a Print Invoice button that references a specific report.

Silverlight graphs replace the old flash-based graphs and allow you to customize the XAML output in the same way that you customize an ASP.NET page to produce HTML. This approach also allows you to embed more business logic into a graph.

Regular Expression Validation of the EditViews give your users immediate feedback when they type an invalid email address or phone number

Migration to ASP.NET themes and skins simplifies the code and makes it easier for developers to create their own themes and skins.

Administration

SplendidCRM introduces new administrative features for tracking usage and problems.

Persistent System Log helps you track the overall health of the system. Administrators can view warnings and errors with sufficient information to help developers pinpoint the problem.

Founded in 2005, SplendidCRM Software provides a Microsoft-centric open-source Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application that, unlike most open-source solutions built for a Linux environment, enables users to leverage their existing Microsoft infrastructure. The company is located in the Research Triangle of Raleigh, North Carolina, and is privately held.

Kevin, good guy that he is, was taking the time to let me know about a newly discovered (and already fixed) security defect in BlogEngine.net, which is the blogging engine that I use here at JoeOn.net.

Thanks Kevin, you gave me a freakin’ heart attack !!!!

Needless to say, my blog has been patched to remove the defect.

Kevin pointed me to Danny Douglass’ blog entry HERE.

And [ HERE ] is the official BlogEngine.net patch announcement.

Kudos to Danny, and the BlogeEngine.net guys for fixing this so quickly.

And thanks to Kevin for taking the time to let me know, though maybe next time you can just call my cell phone

I felt bad. My negative opinions about Mono have only been about the IP issues and never about the technology or Miguel.

If you don’t know Miguel, he’s the genius behind The Mono Project, and when I say genius, I mean he’s a friggin’ genius. (Not to mention he’s a super nice guy, the kind you want to come to your dinner party.)

What he was referring to is that I’ve comment in the past about mono as it equates to my personal opinions about Microsoft’s Intellectual Property.

I have been harsh, but Microsoft LIKES Miguel. (I don’t know specifically but I’m sure that Miguel would be working for Microsoft if he choose to.)

In fact, Miguel is one of those rare people in the Open Source community that is an advocate without being a zealot.

What Miguel and a few of his very clever friends have accomplished is truly amazing.

Mono is cool enough. C#, ASP.NET, Winforms in a Cross Platform Way.

More recently, Miguel and Friends and built Moonlight. Moonlight is an implementation of Microsoft’s SIlverlight for Linux.

So Miguel, at this very moment, I’m downloading the VM on your site for Moonlight.

I’m going to try to confirm with Tomas that Phalanger will run on Mono and build a Phalanger demo, complete with Silverlight that runs on both .NET AND MONO !

…. and I will SHOW both in my spring Open Source Conference Presentations.

And…..

If there is a hatchet to be buried, dinner and drinks are on me one night at Mix !

Gnome (of which he’s the co-founder) kicks butt and has surpassed KDE as the popular Linux Desktop, Mono, whatever one thinks of the politics, is significant (and amazing when you consider the size of the development team), and NOW………

“I’ve decided to stage a friendly takeover of Microsoft. As of January, 2007 my new work address will be Building 42 at Microsoft. I’ll be working in the CLR team to help bring the love of dynamic languages out to the statically typed heathens :)”